ECUMENICAL GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE OF SHADOWS Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community and St. Andrew United Church of Christ - Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Rev. Paul Werner, St. Andrew UCC, Sarasota, Florida

Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, Priest serving Mary Mother of  Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community and Rev. Paul Werner Pastor/UCC

Rev. Paul Werner,  Pastor at St. Andrew UCC

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Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP , Priest serving Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

Choir from St. Andrew UCC, Sarasota, Florida

Tennie Capps , St. Andrew UCC

Lee Breyer, Priest serving Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

Sally Brochu ARCWP, Priest serving Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community

Bridget Mary and Paul

Sally, Paul and Bridget Mary

Bridget Mary, Lee, and Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K0NcI2_p9I

PRELUDE

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Setting by John Carter)              Bruce Ensinger

GREETING                                                               Rev. Paul Werner

We come here this evening to remember a man. A man…

who had dreams,

who had those dreams shattered,

who needed time to think and pray,

who knew he was likely to die for what he believed…

A man of extraordinary religious insight.

A man who did die—a cruel death

This evening we look at the cross, and we remember…

the betrayal of friendship and its consequences,

the casual cruelty of Roman authority and execution,

and how unreliable others proved to be in a crisis.

This evening may we also remember

that religious bigotry, cruelty, and unreliability

are still a part of our everyday lives.

This evening, then, may we learn some new precepts for living:

Do not avoid contact with suffering,

or close your eyes before suffering.

Do not maintain anger or hatred.

Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest,

or to impress people.

Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature…

This evening we remember.

*PRAYER OF INVOCATION                   Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan

We veil our faces before your glory, O Holy One, and bow before the cross of your wounded Christ. With angels and archangels, we praise you, our Infinite Love, and we bless you, our Compassion, for in our brokenness you have not abandoned us. Hear us as we pray through Jesus, our Beloved. Heal all division, reconcile the estranged, console the suffering, and raise up to new life all that is bound by death. In this holy time, as we remember the suffering of the cross, we offer the prayers of our hearts, that through them we may be transformed to be servants of justice, love, and peace. Make us steadfast witnesses of our Savior’s reign, that we may live in the example of Christ, who was faithful in all things, even death, and whose darkest hour gives light and hope. Amen.

*HYMN

My Song Is Love Unknown (NCH 222)

FIRST SCRIPTURE READING                                          Tennie Capps

John 18:1-8b

After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”

CONTEMPORARY READING: Judas                       Rev. Paul Werner

SECOND SCRIPTURE READING                                      Lee Breyer

John 18:15-27

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself. Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, “You are not also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

CONTEMPORARY READING: Peter      Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan

*HYMN

I Remember a Man (sung to the tune WINCHESTER NEW) – by G. Stuart

I do remember very well

Jesus, the teacher, healer friend;

They say he had nowhere to dwell;

Yet on him many did depend.

I do remember that he cared;

He touched the lepers, loved the poor,

The sick were healed, the hungry fed,

He favored those who broke their Law.

I do remember him upset;

Hostile and brash with Pharisees;

Ablaze with anger, yelled a threat

At temple thieves who stole with ease.

Yet I recall he knew success;

The people followed with no fear;

His simple wisdom did impress;

Crowds waved their palms; he heard them cheer.

When I look back, I see a man

Broken by life; had no relief;

His friends betrayed, and then they ran;

They left him there, engulfed in grief.

I do recall with sympathy,

When near Jerusalem he cried;

His suff’ring in Gethsemane;

He thought God left him when he died.

Yes. Jesus, I remember him;

He tasted deeply joy and pain.

His life reminds me when life’s grim

That love will conquer and sustain.

THIRD SCRIPTURE READING                                         Sally Brochu

John 18:28-38

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The Jews replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.) Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My realm is not from this world. If my realm were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my realm is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him.

FOURTH SCRIPTURE READING                                     Tennie Capps

John 19:1-16

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Child of God.” Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.” When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.”

Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

CONTEMPORARY READING: Pilate                       Rev. Paul Werner

*HYMN

O Love, How Vast, How Flowing Free (NCH 209)

Verses 1-4

FIFTH SCRIPTURE READING                                         Lee Breyer

John 19:17-27

And carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says, “They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.” And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your child.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

CHOIR ANTHEM                                                               Chancel Choir

Forgiveness and Love (James Ahrend)

CONTEMPORARY READING: Mary, Mother of Jesus    Rev. Paul Werner

CONTEMPORARY READING: Mary Magdalene              Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan

SONG

Why? (SPP 47)

SIXTH SCRIPTURE READING                                         Sally Brochu

John 19:28-30

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

A MOMENT OF SILENCE

SEVENTH SCRIPTURE READING                                    Tennie Capps

John 19:38-42

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

CONTEMPORARY READING: Joseph of Arimathea                Rev. Paul Werner

HYMN (NCH 229)

Were You There?

Verses 1-3

SILENT CONTEMPLATION

DEPART IN SILENCE

Worship resources:

§  Contemporary readings from What Else Could I Have Done? by F. Plumer, with the exception of “Mary Magdalene” by Bridget Mary Meehan

§  Greeting by M. Dobson and M. Morwood, adapted

§  Invocation from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers by the Consultation on Common Texts, adapted

§  Scripture texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, adapted for inclusive language